Tag Archives: films

Commissioned by Abertoir, this collection of silent horror shorts celebrates the inventive and imaginative in early cinema with a selection of rarely seen films on the lighter side of horror and, forming the programme’s centrepiece, one of the truly dark but little known masterpieces of the avant-garde in silent cinema.

All the films will be introduced and accompanied on the piano by Paul Shallcross, presenting his own brand new scores.

Those Awful Hats

1909, USA, 3 minutes, (NR)
Director – D.W. Griffith

Possibly the earliest example of a public announcement film and from none other than the director later famous for Birth of a Nation, a film which features some very unexpected happenings in a cinema audience.

The darker undertones of H. G. Wells’ story are transformed into a delightful skit on crime with Chomón’s camera techniques exploring every possibility of stop-motion and double exposure photography. This is the earliest recorded film to make use of the renowned author as source material.

Robert W. Paul was a pioneering engineer of movie cameras and a filmmaker with a keen eye for the fantastic and the bizarre. His films, such as this one and Undressing Extraordinary, are often cited as being some of the earliest manifestations of horror in film. A cautionary tale of what happens if you leave a baby cooking for too long…..

This is unusual in being the work of a group of amateur filmakers with both financial and artistic clout. The use of prism photography suffuses the whole film with an eeriness and claustrophobia which lead inexorably to the truly horrific catharsis. In many ways the definitive cinematic version of the Edgar Allan Poe short story.

One of the now almost forgotten comedians of the silent era Charley Bowers is both actor, animator and inventor in this film. A thinly veiled ghost-house story is the vehicle for some extraordinarily surreal humour, for elaborate sequences of stunning camera effects rarely if ever seen in silent comedy, and for an eye-boggling array of Heath-Robinson-like contraptions which continually thwart the efforts of the two detectives (Charley and his midget assistant) to apprehend the malevolent spirit in the Daffydil Sanatorium.

Started promisingly with very black humour, but after a while the joke wore off and it just became frustrating. Some excellent composition and some stand out moments à la Bunuel, Beckett and even The League of Gentlemen. But overlong and perhaps too alienating.

I think I can say that was the strangest film I have ever seen at PFC. I will remember it though. Lottas sko i Göteborg (1943) – you had to be there…

A surreal slant on humanity.

Loved it!

Not quite sure what I’ve just watched?

How on earth did this film win the Golden Lion?

Not much on the TV.

???

What was that all about then eh?

Bizzare! + Beige very Swedish.

Lost 2 hrs of my life.

A series of surreal pastiches portraying humanity in a mostly sad and sorry state with whiffs of Python-style humour. You probably won’t come out feeling happy!

We had a very successful meeting on the 14th of January to discuss and decide on adding value to our forthcoming events. Eight members were in attendance. Here are my brief notes from the meeting, when the minutes are circulated I will update this post.

Film Sponsors

We would like to thank the following for their financial support of our spring/summer season of films. We are a small film club with limited funds, the support given by the following organisations has allowed us to be a bit more adventurous this season, to invite guests to talk about their films and to host better events.